I LOVE Visiting Schools

One of my favorite things about international teaching is visiting other schools. Since we are all navigating the vast world of education together, most schools extend warm welcomes when request a visit. Over the past eight years I have had the opportunity to connect with amazing educators and explore what learning looks like in different environments around the world. This week I was completely blown away by the high levels of collaboration and the dedicated professionals at Burley Elementary School in Chicago. I learned MANY new things and had a chance to talk about learning but here is a brief list of some of the highlights from my day.

Teachers As Readers

This is probably my most important takeaway from the day. Burley teachers are involved in regular professional reading. The reading assignments and meetings are facilitated by the Curriculum Team. Every other Tuesday, teachers come together in their Professional Development Flex Time to discuss the reading and learn together. This has created a culture of very well-read teachers and purposeful, research-based decision making. I hope to bring this idea back to my school and see my collaborative teammates engage with common texts and new learning. Thank you Burley for sharing this idea with me! I have recorded a list below of texts they have used for these meetings. I have read many of them but look forward to ordering and reading so many more ASAP!

Book Talks

While I do agree that highlighting great books is always highly beneficial for creating that buzz around reading that we want our students to own, I was impressed to see how well it was done in the lesson I observed at Burley. Highlighting great books and authors DAILY is something I worth committing to. Monday, here I come! (Oh, and Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday too!) The fantastic teacher observed mentioned Book Love as inspiration. I love how everything these teachers do has a thoughtful purpose that is backed up by their professional reading!

Student Reading Notebooks

Fourth-grade students all had notebooks that they had labelled with specific sections for their Reading Workshop time. This idea from Fountas and Pinnell was simple and highly effective. I particularly liked the Reading List section where students could easily record books they have read and books they want to read next.

Top Ten Books

Fourth-grade students voted and were very excited to hear about the results of their Top Ten Books List. What a great, simple way for students to evaluate texts and familiarize themselves with the real world lists such as the New York Times Bestsellers list.

If You Learned Here

While visiting the Technology room I signed my class up to participate in a global project that the Technology teacher co-created (so cool!). Find out more here or follow us on Twitter with the #ifyoulearnedhere hashtag.

Book Wall

In addition to each classroom having tons of AMAZING books in inviting baskets all around the room, a fourth-grade room had a simple but highly effective wall of recommendations. Each student's photo was on the wall above three note cards. On the first, the student had written his/her "Now Book". Below this were two more note cards with the "Next Book" and "Last Favorite" books displayed too. This wall allows teachers to see which books students are reading at any moment and encourages students to think about which books they plan to read next. The "Last Favorite" also helps students searching for book recommendations to quickly see which books their peers have recently enjoyed. This idea, as so many at Burley do, came from another great book called Reading Essentials by Regie Routman.

Burley's Book List

Here is a list for anyone who wants to dive into some worthwhile, Burley-inspired professional reading. I am going to be ordering a few new titles today to start ASAP. If you want to discuss any of these books, please connect with me!

Really enjoying your posts Sara - your enthusiasm is infectious! I bookmarked all the books - may have to try and start up some professional reading here. I really miss the professional reading club the NIST learning support team had (wine, great food and articles about ASD - strange way to spend an evening but I loved it!).

Hi Sandy! So great to hear from you! I enjoy consolidating thinking through writing but feedback from other professionals is where I hope to grow. Please do share about how it goes setting up professional reading there! I spoke to Maija about the idea of starting something at NIST and hope that the great LS team idea can grow to reach the rest of the school soon. :)